Bridlington Murder Accused Goes On Trial
The jury in the trial of John Heald - charged with killing guesthouse landlady Bei Carter - heard that he admitted killing her, but says it was an accident.
A 53-year-old man murdered a guest house landlady and locked her body in a bedroom before going on the run, a court has heard.
John Heald stabbed Bei Carter in the chest and stamped on her face before leaving her in a room at the Morayland Hotel in Bridlington, Hull Crown Court was told.
Heald was staying at the guest house after raping a woman several times in Sheffield and going on the run from police, the jury heard.
Graham Reeds QC, prosecuting, said:
On the evening of the 18th of July, Bei Carter was working upstairs in the guest house when the defendant violently attacked and murdered her.''
Mr Reeds said Heald used a saw knife with an 18cm blade and stabbed 49-year-old Mrs Carter with such force that the blade went through her breastbone and cut into her aorta.
The prosecutor told the jury of eight men and four women:
The degree of internal injury or bleeding caused by that injury meant that Bei Carter died where the defendant left her.
He pulled her into one of the bedrooms of the guest house and, instead of getting help, he locked the door on her using her keys and then left the guest house as quickly as he could in an attempt to escape.''
Mr Reeds told the jury Heald raped a woman he knew on July 13 last year. He said:
He raped her at knifepoint, in her own home, on more than one occasion, over several hours. At one point he gagged her with some gaffer tape but she tore it off when she could not breathe.''
When Heald was arrested, he told police he had had sex with the woman but said it was consensual, the court heard.
The jury was told he has admitted killing Mrs Carter but said it was an accident, telling police he had been threatened by some men and stabbed her accidentally during a pulling and tugging on the knife''.
Mr Reeds said:
None of what he says explains away the severe force needed to inflict the chest wound, which cut through the bone, or the fact that there are several marks on her face made by the shoes, suggestive of stamping on her, with associated bruising and fracturing of the bone in her throat.''
Heald, from Rotherham, is charged with three counts of rape and one count of murder. He denies all the charges.